The New Horizons probe starts to reveal its data, after approaching closely Pluto on Tuesday and spent the day in taking photos . In communication with the probe, the scientists of the NASA broadcast Wednesday spectacular images of the dwarf planet and its main moon Charon. There we see high mountains, canyons or cliffs.
“Today we received the first sample of the scientific treasures collected during these critical times and I can tell you that it largely surpasses all our expectations,” said former astronaut John Grunsfeld, director of scientific missions of NASA, during a press conference.
The team in charge of the mission has shown a very precise zoomed image and a small part of Pluto, illustrating the details that the new data will be discovered.
“The image released Tuesday was already spectacular, now we have a resolution ten times more accurate. And the most amazing to me geologically is that this zoomed image, which shows an area 250 kilometers wide, shows no impact crater, while Pluto is in the Kuiper Belt and is regularly bombarded with debris, “said John Spencer, one of the researchers the mission.
From the high mountains of 3,500 meters
“In this picture we also see some pretty high mountains, about 3,500 meters above sea level. This shows us that Pluto ice crust is strong enough to support high mountains such as these, which are the size of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado “(west), took over M .. Spencer
New Horizons also took some very detailed pictures of Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet “Pluto could not disappoint us but Charon did not disappoint us either!” s ‘enthused Cathy Olkin, assistant director of the project.
“It’s a small world where we see a large dark area at the north pole, we nicknamed Mordor + + (as in the dark world of “The Lord of the Rings”, Ed), there are cliffs, canyons whom probably did 10 kilometers deep … There are so many interesting scientific evidence in this single image, “he does -she said.
A heart-shaped area named after the discoverer of the planet
Furthermore the New Horizons team revealed baptising the large clear area in the heart shape on Pluto “Tombaugh Region”, named Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet in 1930. New Horizons
scored history of space conquest Tuesday by performing the first close flyby of Pluto after a journey of nine years and five billion kilometers.
This small probe about the size of an upright piano was launched in 2006, the same year that Pluto, long considered the ninth planet in our solar system, was reclassified as “dwarf planet” because of its small size. Pluto is indeed smaller than our moon, for example.
Since Voyager 2, which flew over Neptune in 1989, no new planet had been approached so close.
“Pluto is a complex world absolutely fascinating”
“Now we see Pluto. We had no idea of what to expect, it could be interesting, no more … But the extraordinary thing about exploration, science is that nature always provided us with incredible surprises. It turns Pluto is a complex world absolutely fascinating, and it will take us time to understand everything that happens, “resumed Mr. Grunsfeld.
With data sent by New Horizons in recent days its approach, the researchers have already been able to confirm in particular the presence of ice on the poles and refine the measurements on the exact size of the dwarf planet.
It will take a total of 16 months to transmit the probe all data collected in a few hours during her historical overview. Meanwhile, New Horizons continues her way to observe the Kuiper Belt, a vast pile of debris beyond the orbit of Neptune.
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